Most emblem books in the collection of the University Library were acquired not intentionally by the consecutive librarians, but they came as gifts and bequests or through the purchase of parts of private libraries. The Nomenclator, the first printed catalogue of the collection of Leiden University Library, mentions only two emblem books, namely Emblemata of Hadrianus Junius (Leiden, 1585) and Joannes Sambucus' Emblemata et aliquot nummi (Leiden, 1584), and these were donated to the library by Leiden magistrates as part of a collection of books given to the town by Christopher Plantin in 1585. The edition of Alle de wercken of Jacob Cats (Amsterdam, 1655) was given by the author. Paolo Aresi's Delle imprese sacre con utili (Verona, 1615) and Giovanni Ferro's Teatro d'imprese (Venice, 1623) were acquired in 1690, when the curators bought the complete library of the great Dutch scholar Isaac Vossius (1618-1688). Les entretiens d' Ariste et d'Eugene by Dominique Bouhours (Amsterdam, 1671) and Horapollo's De Sacris Aegyptiorum notis, aegyptiace expressis libri duo (Paris, 1574) were part of the library of the Huguenot writer, publisher and journalist Prosper Marchand (1678-1756), who bequeathed his books and manuscripts to the University Library. Johannes Goropius Becanus' Opera (Antwerp, 1580) and Henricus Engelgrave's Lux evangelica sub velum sacrorum emblematum recondita (Antwerp, 1657) originally belonged to the library of the Remonstrant seminary in Rotterdam, which was given to the University Library on a long-term loan in 1878. There are also several emblem books in the Leiden collections which can be connected to Bonaventura Vulcanius (1538-1614), professor of Greek in Leiden. He may have given his copy of Horapollo's Hieroglyphica (Augsburg, 1595) to the Leiden polyhistor Johannes de Laet. Johannes Thysius added the book to his collection, when he bought it at the auction of De Laet's library in 1650.

In 1887 W.C.M. de Jonge van Ellemeet bequeathed his rich collection of works by Cats, fittingly named Museum Catsianum, to the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde. Another donation was the collection of approximately 4,000 theatrical plays donated in 1842. As the donor wished to remain anonymous, the works in question are marked by a vignette simply stating 'Geschenk van Tooneelstukken, 1842' (gift of plays). Another donation to the Maatschappij is the library of the philologist dr. Eelco Verwijs (1830-1880), consisting of twenty-four items.

Nicolaas Cornelis de Gijselaar (1792-1873), director of the Leiden Print Room, donated various emblem books, such as Jan Harmensz. Krul, Pampiere wereld (Amsterdam, 1644), and Florentius Schoonhovius, Emblemata […] partim moralia, partim etiam civilia (Gouda, 1618).